Elysium's Love Triangle Read online

  She sits on her bed and crosses her legs, looking very content. My diary is under my bed. She hid it there. You can’t trust some people, she tells me, it’s best to keep these things out of sight.

  I study her, amazed. She is a bit of an enigma, this girl. Figuring her out will be quite the job. She has various posters hung up on her side of the room. I look at them now. The pictures are of a clown, a spider, a view from the top of a high building, various insects, a big needle and the Grim Reaper himself.

  She notices me eyeing them and looks pleased. She still has to put up one of a germ magnified a million times.

  I just smile and nod. Of course she does.

  I study the posters again. I’m thinking that perhaps there’s some sense, some pattern, to the whole arrangement that I’m not seeing. All the different pictures, they just seem so random.

  A weird thought hits me then, a connection.

  They are all things that people are commonly afraid of.

  Insects, spiders, clowns. Heck, even death himself. There is at least one thing up there that will make anyone who comes in here just a little freaked.

  My room-mate is humming as she puts on black nail-varnish.

  I empty out the last of my clothes as she tells me about her first impression of our school. She loves it. She never thought she’d get to come somewhere as nice as this. It’s a dream come true, really.

  She wonders if I want to stay up all night and watch girly movies. We should so totally bond, she thinks, now that we’re room-mates and all.

  She seems so incredibly excited that I don’t want to burst her bubble. I agree.

  We both sit on her bed and put a romantic comedy on the television. Before long we are both laughing. She offers me some of the sweets she bought earlier. I take one, feeling awfully comfortable in my new school already.

  She won’t be a bad room-mate, despite her various quirks.

  I move back to my bed during the second film. I do this because I am falling asleep.

  The last thing I hear before I fall asleep is Angelica’s voice.

  She wishes me sweet dreams.

  Sweet dreams are definitely not what I get.

  I am standing in a golden room. There is a red curtain.

  An old man dressed in black, with a crooked grin, pulls the cord and opens it.

  He disappears.

  I see what’s behind the curtain.

  A large aquarium tank, full of water.

  It contains my worst fear.

  Great White Sharks.

  There are twenty of them, maybe more. The number seems to be growing.

  I back away in terror and shout for someone to help.

  I need to get out of here now. I am suffocating.

  The old man appears again, he says it’s time for a swim.

  Suddenly I am dangling above the tank on a rope.

  I scream and scream. My terror and fear are multiplying by the moment.

  No one is hearing my screams. I am going to die.

  I cannot see the sharks. A lot of the time they are invisible beneath the surface, people don’t know they are there until they attack.

  One of those monsters will jump out and grab me.

  It will tear me to pieces. I will be helpless.

  The rope begins to be lowered.

  “No!” I scream so loud that it hurts my throat.

  The rope keeps on lowering, only slowly. The terror I feel is so complete. It is in every pore of my body.

  The rope disappears.

  I am in the tank with the sharks. They attack.

  *

  I wake up and just about stop myself from screaming.

  There is a dark, cold feeling pulsing through my body. It is fear.

  I have another strange feeling, or maybe it’s an idea. I just can’t shake it.

  It’s the sense that someone, or something, wicked just had their hand across my head.

  It has just left, quickly, as I woke up. Its cold presence is still here.

  I shiver as I sit up.

  The lights in our room are out now. You can no longer see the comforting pink paint. My room-mate is asleep in her bed, turned away from me.

  I take a few breaths and lie back down.

  I know that I will never, ever, learn to surf.

  The early light of dawn streams in the window and illuminates our room.

  There are two new posters on Angelica’s wall. One is of a lightning bolt on a dark night; the other is of a vicious looking snake.

  They are in keeping with her theme of pure horror.

  She must have hung them up after I fell asleep.

  I close my eyes.

  I think about nice, comforting things, like home. I picture myself in a peaceful garden filled with flowers.

  I think about Greg.

  Eventually I fall back asleep.

  I am half-asleep when I sit back up, suddenly.

  There is something wrong.

  Once again I glance over to Angelica’s bed.

  She isn’t there.

  *

  “Where were you last night?” I ask Angelica the next morning, “I was worried sick.”

  She looks at me like I’m crazy, “I was here, silly!”

  She brushes it off, just like that, as she pulls her school blazer over her head.

  There is no way she was here. I was awake for ages, waiting for her to return.

  I waited until half six. I was about to call the police.

  Then, rather mysteriously, I fell asleep.

  Last night was very weird.

  I tell Angelica all this.

  She laughs lightly, “You were dreaming.”

  I know I wasn’t. It was all far too real.

  Angelica seems much too uneasy now too, like someone being found out. This is what really convinces me that I’m right.

  I begin wondering why she won’t tell me.

  What is it that she’s so keen to keep a secret?

  I shrug it off. Perhaps she was meeting some boy and is afraid that I’ll rat them out to the Principle.

  Yes, that is probably it. There is a completely innocent explanation.

  At this point Tanya Terson, a nice girl from my green-eyed group, bursts into our room.

  She forgot to pack her hair straightener and is completely panicking. Her long ginger hair is a testament to this, it is still extremely curly. Angelica just smiles and offers her a loan of the one she brought a few days ago.

  Tanya thanks her sincerely; she’s her ‘saviour’ apparently.

  Then Tanya notices the posters.

  Her eyes find the one of the snake and she shivers, “You should get nicer posters Angelica . . . These ones are kind of creepy.”

  “Nah, I like them,” Angelica has the same careless grin as ever. She seems a lot more relaxed now than a few minutes ago. “Do you know that I used to have a pet snake when I was younger?”

  Tanya’s eyes widen and her body straightens quickly, “I don’t know how you could do that. Even hearing the word ‘snake’ really creeps me out.”

  She is not lying, you can tell from the way her voice has gotten smaller.

  I decide to distract Tanya and address them, “Are you guys coming to breakfast? We don’t want to be late on our first day. Krein would put us on his watch-list!”

  Indeed he does have a watch-list. He told us about it. On it are the names of the people he will be keeping a ‘very close eye’ on.

  Tanya does a quick straighten on her hair and the three of us leave together.

  “I don’t know why I’m even going to breakfast,” Angelica says. “I am so full. I literally couldn’t eat another thing.”

  She has a knowing smile after this.

  I didn’t see her eat anything yet today. She seems serious though.

  I think back to her absence last night again.

  I think about the way she seemed to revel in Tanya’s fear just now.

  The very same way she revelled in the fear
of the people on the plane.

  There is something very strange going on.

  I decide to keep my eyes open from now on.

  *

  I like our English teacher, Professer Madson. He assigned us seats and put me sitting next to Daniel.

  The green and blue eyed classes are mixed for this English. The teachers gave us a timetable at breakfast this morning in which the blue-eyed class were referred to as ‘Class B’ and my class were called ‘Class G’. B for the blues and G for the greens I suppose.

  I try to take notes on the novel Madson is telling us about. It has something to do with Shakespeare and I think it takes place in Denmark.

  I really can’t concentrate. Daniel is right beside me after all, looking even better than yesterday.

  Every now and again he whispers to comment to me about something. His voice is sexy when it’s low like that. Half the time I don’t even get what he’s saying.

  Most of my responses have been ‘oh, yeah, right’ or something like that. He probably thinks that I’m a bit dim. I promise myself that next time he talks to me I’ll come back with something educated and astounding. I shall not get distracted by the beauty of his hair, I tell myself.

  My stream of thought is broken when a girl suddenly screams behind me.

  Everyone turns quickly to see what’s wrong.

  It’s Mandy Cramson from my class. She has jumped out of her seat.

  “There’s a spider . . . It’s huge. It came out of no-where. In my book . . . Someone take it away!” She dares to look again at her desk, the fear obvious in her voice. “Oh my gosh, there’s two!”

  She looks like she might faint. She backs away from her desk.

  I reckon she’ll make a break for the door if someone doesn’t stop her.

  Mr Madson addresses her in the same droning voice with which he called out our notes, “Miss Cramson will you please calm down . . . Someone please get rid of those things so that we can resume with our class in a nice sane manner.”

  I look over at Angelica who looks rather satisfied suddenly.

  She’s not the only one. All of the people with blue eyes seem rather contented.

  Their eyes, there’s something off about them. It’s the same thing I noticed with Daniel’s yesterday. There is a slight glow to them.

  I do a quick check, each and every one of them seem to have this other-worldly feature going for them.

  I wonder how I didn’t notice it before.

  Daniel volunteers to get rid of the spiders. He obviously doesn’t share Mandy’s phobia.

  Once they are safely out the window class resumes.

  I notice that Daniel gives his sister a look when he sits down. It’s a chastising one, like she’s done something wrong.

  She shrugs, not seeming very bothered.

  Class goes on for another ten minutes normally.

  Then a guy named Harry Garfield jumps out of his seat.

  He has just seen three wasps. They just landed right in front of him.

  Craziness ensues as our new arrivals take flight. You’d be surprised at how many people are completely freaked out by wasps.

  All of the people with blue eyes remain completely calm. I notice because I have begun to pay attention to them.

  Not one of them even looks irked.

  It is almost like they are distracted from the pandemonium going on around them. They are all concentrating very hard on something seemingly invisible, staring forward blankly.

  It’s like they are doing some kind of deep meditation.

  Daniel closes his eyes for a second and takes a deep breath.

  Professer Madson has had enough of the theatrics, “Just what is going on here today?”

  I am wondering the same thing.

  *

  We are in a supervised study-class after school. Krein is our supervisor so we have no option but to be quiet.

  Greg is sitting beside me, completely restless. He keeps passing me little notes with random thoughts on them.

  A lot of them make me want to laugh. Others are really deep and philosophical.

  He gives me another one now.

  It is a drawing of a boy with an umbrella. The sun has just come out.

  The picture is entitled ‘My Life’.

  I know exactly how he feels. I give him a smile and get back to studying.

  He has another picture drawn in a minute, he passes it to me.

  This time the boy has sun-block. It is raining.

  This one is entitled ‘My Life: The sequel’.

  I look at him.

  He has such an innocent puppy face on now. He just nods his head at me.

  I can’t help it. I laugh.

  Krein is beside me in a minute. He gives me an ‘official’ warning.

  Silence must be upheld. Didn’t I hear him at the start of the class?

  I assure him that I did.

  I will be kicked out of study-class if he has to give me a second warning. He goes back up to his desk, now finished with his rant that distracted more people than I ever could have.

  Greg writes me a new note.

  He is sorry. He won’t get me into trouble again.

  I send him a note back to tell him that it’s fine.

  I have quite enjoyed his company during this class. I’m pretty sure it kept me sane.

  He works on his next note for quite a while.

  In the end it is another drawing, a lot more professional this time.

  An Angel.

  The detail on her hair and wings are amazing. It’s completely beautiful.

  The title simply reads ‘You’.

  My breath catches in my throat.

  That’s so nice.

  I put my hand on my heart and look at him.

  I whisper it, “Thanks.”

  He gives me a look to say ‘no big deal’ before beginning work on a new one.

  I study him as he does it. He does have a sensitive side beneath it all, perhaps.

  Again I marvel at how much he’s grown up.

  He is very handsome. I would very much apply the word ‘Angel’ in describing his face and body.

  Unfortunately I have no artistic medium in which to express this.

  His next note is in the written word.

  He is wondering if Krein would ‘spontaneously combust’ if the two of us just started making out right now.

  So much for the sensitive side . . .

  Again he has succeeded at putting an idea into my head.

  One, as always, that is against the rules.

  I shake my head at him and give him a wry smile.

  He winks and says quietly, “There’s a lot of study classes to come . . .”

  He is right.

  He is also very good at breaking down my defences.

  I find myself getting just a little bit lost in his eyes.

  The bell for the end of class rings and jolts me out of it.

  I gather up all the notes. I might stick some of them into my diary.

  The Angel one is a definite must-keep.

  Anything from him is.

  I chastise myself.

  I know Greg Harshaw is trouble.

  My falling for him must stop now.

  Two of the girls from Class B are behind me. Completely by mistake I overheard one of them.

  There is a ‘member meeting’ tonight, she says.

  This piques my interest. There are no meetings scheduled tonight for any of the extra-curricular clubs in the school. It would be on the notice board if this was the case.

  The girl had been talking quietly as well. No one was supposed to hear.

  ‘Member Meeting’.

  I being to wonder if there’s some wonderful secret society going on around here that I haven’t been privy to.

  I stuff my books in my bag.

  Angelica might have been at one of these meeting last night. If they’re a secret group it would explain why she couldn’t tell me.

  I decide to
stay awake tonight, just to see if she slips away again.

  I swing my bag onto my back.

  When did I become such a curious person?

  Something about these people is drawing me to this mystery. I feel strangely involved in it.

  Greg wants to know if I have any interest in visiting the boy’s dormitories.

  It is an innocent question, he insists, with a hint of pure guilt in his eyes.

  “Not right now,” I answer as we walk out together.

  The truth is I would go anywhere he asked me.

  This is why I’m not able to just say ‘no’ to his suggestion.

  I never can refuse when it comes to him.

  It’s a weakness, not something I can help.

  “What are you thinking about?” He asks as we walk through the halls.

  “Nothing!” I reply far too fast, surely giving away my guilt.

  He gives me that mischievous grin that I am learning to love.

  My heart skips a beat.

  It does that a lot when he’s around.

  *

  The night comes again.

  Angelica is reading a book about spiders. She is cutting out the pictures and sticking them into a scrap book.

  It is full of pictures of spiders, them and frogs.

  I don’t even comment.

  I talk breezily to her about the dance we have coming up. Tomorrow night all of us new additions to the school will be attending the ‘Fresher’s Ball’.

  I have a short pink dress all ready to be worn. I can’t wait.

  Angelica seems more interested in frogs, frankly.

  She thinks she has a dress to wear, she’s not sure. If she doesn’t she shall go to the ball in her school uniform and wellington boots.

  I have no idea if she’s joking or not.

  I begin writing in my diary.

  I find myself writing about Daniel. He didn’t sit with Class B at lunch today. Instead he joined my group.

  It was very noticeable because no one else from Class B mixed at all. They band together like some strange kind of family. I noticed a few of them giving him looks, as if he was betraying them somehow.

  He happily ignored them and seemed to have great fun with us.

  He and Greg got into a debate about which of them is better at gymnastics. The two of them are trying out for the school team apparently.

  Greg bet ten dollars that he could beat Daniel easily.

  Daniel just smiled knowingly. He accepted the bet.

  Again I got the feeling that I was missing something here.